Please comment on this system

[heresiarh]

AMD Athlon XP 2700
ASUS A7N8X-E mainboard:

8x AGP/Pro
dual gigabit ethernet
built-in Wifi 802.11.b
serial ata raid
6pci slots
4 usb 2.0 ports on the back + 2 more on top of the case
2 firewire 400 ports
6 channel surround sound, spdf out
supports up to 3GB dual channel DDR 400 RAM
Running WinXP Pro w/service pack1
Coolermaster Wavemaster black all aluminum case
lite on combo drive
200 GB 7200 RPM Western digital HD
512MB DDR RAM
420W Thermaltake Powersupply with active PFC
floppy drive
Genuine ATI 9600XT video card.

Is this a good system I built?


PS: I AM A MAC USER AND RECENTLY ADDED A PC TO MY LINE OF SYSTEMS. THE REASON I BOUGHT THE PC IS BECAUSE IT HAS BETTER 3D CAPABILITES.

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[ForceCalibur]

Um sure.

Except for that Radeon 9600 XT, which is a major waste of money unless you spent less than 80 bucks on it.

 

[heresiarh]

Why is the radeon 9600XT a waste of money?

 

[classy]

Its not bad. It depends on how much money you spent on it.

 

[heresiarh]

Well the entire system cost $900. I spent $140 on the card. But please give me more details on why is the 9600XT not a good choice.

 

[Markfw]

For just a little more you could have gotten a 9700pro or a 9800 pro that would leave that 9600XT in the dust. Also, I would have gotten a 2500 Barton and OC'ed it to 3200+ speed.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Except for that Radeon 9600 XT, which is a major waste of money unless you spent less than 80 bucks on it.

$80 huh, where would you find this card for $80? I'd like to know so I can go buy one for $80.


As for the OP's question. I think it's a nice system. I personally wouldn't use all the extra stuff, like onboard 802.11b, serial ata, gigabit ethernet, etc. etc. Other than that it sounds like a fairly quick rig. Should be able to play any game out right now, although for gaming you may want to bump the ram up to 1gb.

classy has a point though, if you spend a lot of money, then it might not be such a great deal, even though it is fast...

 

[heresiarh]

So in short, the video card is not upto standards. i might as well throw it out the window.

Ok, please check this link and advise on the system:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1077624680832&skuId=6374194&type=product&cmp=%20%20


PLUS, HOW WOULD THE SYSTEM I BUILT COMPARE TO A BASE MODEL OF AN IBOOK G4.

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: heresiarh
So in short, the video card is not upto standards. i might as well throw it out the window.

Ok, please check this link and advise on the system:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1077624680832&skuId=6374194&type=product&cmp=%20%20


PLUS, HOW WOULD THE SYSTEM I BUILT COMPARE TO A BASE MODEL OF AN IBOOK G4.

That system is nice, much better CPU, but proprietary, and a crap video card. Your 9600XT is just a little sub-par, but that 5200 is the bottom of the heap.

 

[heresiarh]

Hmm I see. Well I seem to be happy with the system performance. All the strategy games that I play are running just fine. Other than that, I am thinking of maxing out the ram to 3GIGs. That will help just about everything. In the future, I'll buy a 256mb VCard and i think the system should be good for another year.

What do you guys think?

 

[heresiarh]

What about the hard drive? is it good at speed? western digital 7200RPM 8mb Cache.

 

[ForceCalibur]

No, I'm not saying you should throw the 9600XT out the window. It is a middle ranged card, that costs way too much for it's performance. You spent 140 dollars, but you could have spent 140 dollars shipped on Ebay and have purchased either a 9800se, 9800NP, 9700Pro that absolutely KILLS the 9600XT.

This is pretty much true for all 9600 series, they all suck for their price. A geforce 4 TI series card performs equally as well, and it can be bought for 40-60 dollars shipped here at Anandtech's very own F/S-Trade section. Ebay as well.

The 9600XT CAN be bought for 80 dollars. I saw one go just last week on the FS/Trade forums. These are people who are knowledgeable as to just how poor the performance/price ratio is for this card.

 

[heresiarh]

Hmm interesting. Well, in the future, i just plan on switching to a 256mb card. Any suggestions. Plus, comment no the hard drive also.

 

[crsgardner]

If you're not gaming there's no reason to worry about the 9600. It'll work just fine with most apps.

 

[heresiarh]

I do game but mostly strategy games. Besides that, if I do want to play those hard core games i might as well invest in a playstation or xbox. Usually I like to keep everything separate.

 

[Cheetah8799]

Heresiarh, you're going to need to do some research beyond the opinions expressed in this thread. Obviously some of us feel that your system is fine, others think you should get better. There are lots of reviews and comparisons for video cards on the net. Sounds like you've already spent the money on your rig, so don't go spending a ton more only to have spare parts lying around. You might not get all that much of an improvement for your total time and money.

You mentioned maxing your rig out a 3g of ram. IMO that's not needed. 512mb is about all you need for usual apps and such, 1gb for the latest games. Any more would only maybe be needed with next-gen games, maybe half life 2, doom 3, and beyond.

The strategy games you play most likely will run fine with 512mb and the 9600xt video card you have. SO if you aren't gonna play anything more intensive than that, why spend more money on a better card?

That WD 7200rpm hard drive you have there is what a lot of people use. There are faster, such as the sata Raptor drives, but they are also much more expensive. If the system feels slow, maybe you could use a faster hard drive, but WD makes some fairly fast drives, so it's not a huge issue unless you are really picky.

 

[SgtZulu]

MAC USERS ARE SO ANNOYING

 

[heresiarh]

Thanks for the info. SgtZulu, Mac users are annoying, I completely agree. . Anyways, I'm happy with my system uptil now, it runs pretty well alongside my dual 1.25ghz g4.

 

[heresiarh]

I have noticed that AMD Athlons are a popular choice in comparison to p4s. why is that?

 

[Markfw]

Originally posted by: heresiarh
I have noticed that AMD Athlons are a popular choice in comparison to p4s. why is that?

The Athlon XP is cheaper than a P4 (lower and middle), and the Athlon64 is faster than a P4 (high end)

 

[Gagabiji]

Originally posted by: heresiarh
I have noticed that AMD Athlons are a popular choice in comparison to p4s. why is that?

Well, Athlons cost HEAPS less money then the P4.

 

[VIAN]

AMD Athlon XP 2700
ASUS A7N8X-E mainboard:

8x AGP/Pro
dual gigabit ethernet
built-in Wifi 802.11.b
serial ata raid
6pci slots
4 usb 2.0 ports on the back + 2 more on top of the case
2 firewire 400 ports
6 channel surround sound, spdf out
supports up to 3GB dual channel DDR 400 RAM
Running WinXP Pro w/service pack1
Coolermaster Wavemaster black all aluminum case
lite on combo drive
200 GB 7200 RPM Western digital HD
512MB DDR RAM
420W Thermaltake Powersupply with active PFC
floppy drive
Genuine ATI 9600XT video card.

CPU could be much better - 2800+Barton, more cache helps. Or a 2500+Barton for overclocking.
Motherboard may carry features that you won't use. So check up on that.
512MB recommend for most users. 1GB would set you up for the future.
Card sucks for gaming. At least a 9700 Pro, 9800 Pro recommended. they have about a 30buck diff.

Why is the radeon 9600XT a waste of money?

20 bucks more or so and you can get a 9700 Pro that will demolish it in speed.

Ok, please check this link and advise on the system:

Slow RAM and cheap Video card.

Hmm I see. Well I seem to be happy with the system performance. All the strategy games that I play are running just fine. Other than that, I am thinking of maxing out the ram to 3GIGs. That will help just about everything. In the future, I'll buy a 256mb VCard and i think the system should be good for another year.

Strategy games use more CPU power and RAM power and capacity that other games. You main focus should be on those. Always leave one RAM slot open on the motherboard. If you fill in all the RAM, you RAM speed will be lowered. The size of the RAM on the video card doesn't determine how much power it has.

What about the hard drive? is it good at speed? western digital 7200RPM 8mb Cache.

Good.

I have noticed that AMD Athlons are a popular choice in comparison to p4s. why is that?

Athlon XPs are cheaper and perform better, except against P4C chips, which the Athlon64 beat, while being cheaper as well. P4's are meant for encoding and decoding and database and compiling and stuff that we don't do. Athlons do everything else better including general usage, gaming.

 

[SickBeast]

hahaha you admitted that mac users are annoying! that made my day!! ha ha ha i laugh at you!!!!


in any case, the 9600xt is fine, just not a very good deal price wise when compared with the 9800 pro cards.

it's a shame you didn't start this thread BEFORE you bought the system; there's not much we can do to help you now.

if it were my money i would have got a mobile athlon xp 2500+ paired with an nforce2 motherboard and a 9800pro 128mb graphics card.

 

[heresiarh]

well, it seems like I wasted my time building this system. Maybe I should have stuck with Macs. Mac users are annoying cause all they talk about is Mac systems and don't give anything else a chance, and think they are GODSSSSSS.

Anyhowssss..

Well, now, if i have $300 to spend in my pocket, can i just change the processor and the video card? do you think that would make things better?

 

[Markfw]

Well, the question is, can you return the mobo,cpu and video card ? (and add $300 to it ?) If so replace those with:

ASUS K8V deluxe motherboard ($127)
Athlon64 3000+ retail ($223)
Radeon 9800pro ($209)

for a total of $559, so it you can get $259 for your video card, motherboard and CPU in return, you are set.

Edit: I think you had DDR400 memory, and 1 gig of it, right ? That will work fine in the new setup. and keep the raptors.